Questions and Answers on the Object of Devotion Chapter6-2

Question: At present the priests of the Tendai, True Word, and other schools throughout Japan, as well as the ruler, his ministers, and the common people, all question whether the priest Nichiren is to be regarded as superior to the Great Teachers Kōbō, Jikaku, and Chishō. What have you to say to that?

Answer: I, Nichiren, would in turn ask them if they think that the Great Teachers Kōbō, Jikaku, and Chishō are to be regarded as superior to Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, and the Buddhas of the ten directions. This is my first point.

At present in Japan everyone from the ruler on down to the common people is a child of Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings. As his dying instructions, Shakyamuni declared that one should “rely on the Law and not upon persons.”⁸ To proclaim that the Lotus Sutra is foremost is to “rely on the Law.” Priests, the ruler and his ministers, the common people, as well as their servants and their oxen and horses—all those who declare that the opinion of these three great teachers is superior to that of the Buddhas are behaving like disobedient children, are they not? This is my second point.

———————————-（continued to Chapter6-3)————————————–